NewHorizons_1

I always think it's funny when there's a mission in effect to shoot down X aircraft and there's never a CV to be seen ... even the bot ones in co-op.

Capital ships have some of the longest range ASW. If you think that's bad, try a cruiser.

They could in the earlier testing phases, but only when surfaced.

and it doesn't have to wait very long at all. Meanwhile DCP is

Homing torps are still toxic and broken, even in co-op. In this match the sub pinged me, launched torps. As they approached I turned away and DCP'd. It pinged me again, the torps reacquired their lock and two hit. Result: A flood and damaged rudder, that I could no longer repair. It then turned its attention to the poor guy in Cleveland that it sank, presumably as he fell victim to the same toxic ping-launch-DCP-ping-hit sequence. What must have been annoying for the Cleveland is that he could not target the sub as it was undetected and even his radar would not reveal it at periscope depth. What's funny (in a bad way) is that the bot sub almost scored as much on a loss than the player on our side ... who won. And no, I'm not claiming the bots are OP, I'm claiming the homing torps are. And as for ASW, Chumphon has no hydro and I have sail over the target to use depth charges. Lord knows what these things are like to combat in PvP - I think I'll start playing more scenarios, so much for T8, 9 & 10.

I'm still getting to grips with the Royal Navy destroyers, so I normally don't do that well in them. But in this match I managed to (somehow) secure the west flank and take the cap zone, despite the "friendly" D7P abandoning us to clear off towards the centre. So only me and the Mackensen left to face the Akizuki, Tirpitz and bot D7P. OK, so two T6s against three T8s - this'll be interesting. And if that wasn't enough the bot Aoba sailed from the middle spawn point to join the party too. So now two against four. I did a knife fight with the Aki then fired 2 or 3 torps the D7P (thank goodness for single fire torp launchers). Saved most of the torps for the Tirpitz, but sadly not before it got its torps away into the Mackensen. Tirpitz then went undetected as I was hiding in smoke on low health, but the Aoba was still within detection range. By this time the one of the launchers has reloaded so I finished that off. In all the choas I hadn't realized I had also got the Tirpitz with flooding. Took the cap and, for bonus points, managed to get the bot Makensen that was sailing towards the centre ... where our D7P had headed to.

I'm kinda sad Georgia was withdrawn. But glad I was lucky enough to (just) get her before she went.

There are probably more experienced PvP players that have far better ideas than a PvE player such as myself. But if I put on my gimmick hat, how about Support carriers parachute dropping engineering supplies. Would add a temporary zone that a damaged ship could sail through to pick up a heal. A bit like the buffs you could pick up in Arms Race.

One of those "it's just you & me" matches in Georgia where most of your team are bots. Had to giggle when I added up the (potential) damage just from the citadel hits :- could have been upto 110k, though probably less when the last hit is a citadel on a low health target. I'm normally satisfied if I do that much damage in total.

After the proposal a couple of months ago to limit plane spotting of ships to the mini-map (BTW on that one) I was kinda hoping any new designs of aircraft carrier may be fighter plane based. CV player could, say right click on the mini-map, and drop a fighter squadron where ever he wanted. Fighter squadrons could be an enhanced variant with a wider intercept range and/or duration - but no spotting.

Yup, that was my main concern. Add in fires, floods and disabled engine or rudder. With sub sonar pings DCP is already over-worked. With this it can be disabled. May as well not have it.

What next? Ion Cannons? I was hoping for fighter plane support.

7days prem from this month's SC, which is nice as I only had around a month left.

I thought that was the other way around.

Elite commander No5. Taken a while to do in PvE, but lately I've been using HMS Dido in scenarios which has helped. Plus Minotaur in co-op is fun.

And co-op has at least 3 well known pomme de terres in Pommerns. *shrug* I've started doing more scenarios, and I can say I've carried some. That was in CLs, but carrying in a slow BB would be a challenge.

Not sure I'd be in favour of mixing the spawns around, but I realize slow BBs in co-op do have a problem. It's worse when they get uptiered, eg Kansas with Marceau/Kleber or Colorado with Benham. But the DDs can even out-yolo cruisers too, it's not only BBs that can struggle. So maybe high tier DDs have a -1/+2, instead of -2/+2, matchmaking spread for co-op only. Lack of players to fill the team list shouldn't be a problem as you can fill the rest with bots. An alternative for slow T6 & T7 BBs maybe scenarios, though I haven't tried that myself yet.

Don't worry Colbert & D7P, you're not missing out on much as no one else's radar can detect a periscope .... like they could in real life.

At least he didn't format the post in one long line that you have to read like a ticker tape by moving a horizontal scroll bar.

TBH I'm kinda surprised WG didn't sell Petro as a premium. Once the performance of those AP shells got out it would have been

In the training room can you pick sub bots, to add to the team lists, as well? Well, being pedantic, Dutch cruiser airstrikes can damage a sub ... when it's on the surface, but so can everyone else ... with gun fire. But, yes, Dutch cruisers have no counter to a submerged sub. Having said that, cruiser ASW airstrikes are such short range that the Dutch ones are not missing out on much. Actually, it would be quite nice to give Dutch cruisers ASW airstrikes with the same range as their conventional ones. That would then give the Dutch cruisers an actual role - ASW cruiser. Something that, at the moment, is a job best performed by BBs.

D'oh - it's been so long since I'd played Icarus I had forgotten I had upgraded them. Move along, move along. Nothing to see here. Still, having the bots with skilled commanders, and equipment / upgraded modules on them would be nice to have.

And what game would that be?

Interesting observation after the current patch went live - hence the thread bump. Bots might now be running with commanders .... possibly. I was in HMS Icarus with a commander with no torpedo skills (yet). Encountered a bot Icarus and note that there's 40 - 50sec before my torps are ready, so no need to use my hydro for the time being. Safe to do a bit of knife-fighting ... or so I thought. Me and the team should be able to gun down my opposite number before its torps are ready. With around 10sec before my torps are ready the, almost dead, bot Icarus launched his. So with the "Fill the Tubes" skill that would reduce the reload by 12sec which would explain how the bot launched its torps early. Add in a bit of Adrenaline Rush as well and that could reduce it even further.

** plays all ships with depth charge racks or no hydro to knock the 50% first win bonus before anyone unlocks a sub **